Lino Brocka, the Filipino filmmaker and human rights...

Deaths elsewhere

May 23, 1991

Lino Brocka, the Filipino filmmaker and human rights activist, was killed yesterday when the car in which he was riding hit a utility pole in Manila. He was 52. Jailed briefly by the late deposed Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Mr. Brocka was named by President Corazon Aquino to a 45-member commission charged with drafting a new constitution for her revolutionary government. Despite that association, Mr. Brocka made internationally popular films -- more than 50 films over two decades -- citing social ills that continued to exist after Ms. Aquino came to power in 1986. Mr. Brocka became known in Los Angeles in 1989 when his film "Macho Dancer" was first shown in a non-ethnic theater. A documentary by Christian Blackwood about the controversial self-avowed homosexual director, "Signed: Lino Brocka," was also screened in Los Angeles at that time. Mr. Brocka's film about male go-go dancing and prostitution contributed to his status as a major Third World director.

Greg Rice, 75, a record-breaking athlete considered the finest men's distance runner of all time, died Sunday in New Jersey of a stroke. Mr. Rice lowered the world two-mile mark from 8:58 to 8:51 in 1943 and the three-mile from 13:56.2 to 13:45.7 in 1941. His three-mile record lasted 17 years, and the two-mile record held for nine years. In a recent poll by the Athletics Congress, Mr. Rice was named to the all-time track and field team as the finest men's distance runner of all time.

Nicholas Dante, who won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award as an author of "A Chorus Line," the longest-running show in Broadway history, died Tuesday of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. He was 49. Mr. Dante, whose real name was Conrado Morales, began his career as a dancer. Mr. Dante wrote "A Chorus Line" with James Kirkwood, using tapes of dancers' life stories.